


Country Boy Can Survive

by cosmosatyrus



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: M/M, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-07-02
Updated: 2009-07-02
Packaged: 2017-10-27 09:16:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/294142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmosatyrus/pseuds/cosmosatyrus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kirk and McCoy listen to music together. It turns out their tastes aren't as different as they first thought.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Country Boy Can Survive

McCoy chimed the door but there was no answer. He pushed the button again, but still no answer. The next five times he chimed were in rapid succession and followed with a loud curse, "Dammit, Jim!" He punched in his override code and was suddenly sorry he had when the door whooshed open and music blared out.

" _...'cause your crystal ball ain't so crystal clear  
so while you sit back and wonder why  
I got this fuckin' thorn in my side_..."

"Dammit, Jim, you're gonna go deaf listening to this shit!" McCoy shouted over the loud music at a Jim Kirk who was dancing in the middle of his quarters, pretending to play the drums.

"Oh! Hey, Bones! Lemme turn this down!" He reached over to the console and adjusted the volume to a more reasonable level. The strings of an electric guitar scratched rhythmically,

 _"...So-so-so listen up 'cause you can't say nothin'._.."

"What the hell are you doing?" McCoy crossed his arms over his chest and gave him the "you're insane, Jim" look. Kirk had seen this look so often since they met, he thought it impossible to even estimate the number of occurrences. Eyes wide, eyebrows raised, arms crossed, a look of sheer disbelief that any sane human would do...whatever it was Jim was doing.

"I'm listening to music, blowing off some steam." He grinned, "Beastie Boys - That song has particularly happy memories for me. Computer, play number Beta-beta-fifteen. I like this one." A robotic voice droned over drums, interspersed with the same vocalists from before.

 _"Intergalactic planetary, intergalactic, intergalactic..."_

"Twentieth century?" McCoy asked.

"Late twentieth, early twenty-first. A lot of the mid-twentieth century stuff is really good, but there are a couple decades of absolute shit. Oh! My theme song. You gotta hear this one, Bones. Computer, play Hendrix-alpha-one" Soulful riffs poured out like honey over pain, pure emotion in the voice of a guitar.

 _"If you could just get your...mind together  
Then come across to me  
We'll hold hands and then we'll watch the sunrise  
from the bottom of the sea  
But first, are you experienced?"  
_  
"Gotta love Hendrix. Great music to get laid to. Wait, I know something more your speed. Computer, play number Tango-Whiskey-seven." Kirk grinned as the steel guitars began to twang.

 _"...And if you love him/ Oh be proud of him  
'Cause after all he's just a man...  
Stand by your man..."_

 __McCoy scowled the scowl of death, "Okay," Kirk bit his lip and looked a little embarrassed, "maybe Tammy Wynette isn't your thing."

 _"Give him two arms to cling to..."_

 __McCoy grumbled, "Why do you listen to this stuff anyway? I'd have thought you'd listen to something more..."

"New stuff?" Kirk scoffed, "Shit, no. It's all pulsing noise or overly saccharine crap. The good stuff endures over centuries. I can find the entire range of human emotion and experience in the music of the the mid to late twentieth century. Take this song for example - computer, play Papa-Charlie-nine."

 _"Your cheating heart, will make you weep,  
you'll cry and cry, and try to sleep..."_

McCoy's scowl deepened, "That's not even funny, Jim."

Kirk laughed out loud, "I've been trying to think of songs that make me think of you and they were all country songs. Actually, there's one that I think you'll like." Kirk dropped the smile, "I'm serious about this one, Bones, it's Johnny Cash. Computer, play Cash-one-three." Accoustic guitar played soft, joined by piano and the deep voice of a man that wavered a little with age.

 _"I hurt myself today to see if I still feel  
I focus on the pain, the only thing that's real.  
The needle tears a hole, the old familiar sting  
try to kill it all away, but I remember everything.  
What have I become, my sweetest friend,  
everyone I know goes away in the end..."_

 __"Turn it off, Jim." McCoy's jaw was tight and his eyes glossy with tears that hadn't yet fallen.

 _"I will let you down  
I will make you hurt."_

 __"Please, Jim." Kirk hesitated, not quite processing what McCoy was asking.

 _"And you could have it all,  
my empire of dirt,  
I will let you down.  
I will make you hurt."_

"Fuck, Bones, I'm sorry." He turned the music off and they sat in the quiet of the Captain's quarters, "I'm sorry. Geez, shit. I just-" He needed to not look at Bones for a moment or he'd lose it, "I just think of you an me on the shuttlecraft that first day. We had nothing but our names. Both of us fucked up and fucked over." He straightened up, "Shit, y'know, I didn't mean to bring the room down. Here's a good one - and I want you remember I'm from Iowa. Computer, play Hector-Whiskey-two-five." Steel and accoustic guitar twanged out a tune while a man drawled out the words and the two men just listened.

 _"I can plow a field all day long  
I can catch catfish from dusk till dawn  
We make our own whiskey and our own smoke too  
Ain’t too many things these ole boys can’t do  
We grow good ole tomatoes and homemade wine  
And a country boy can survive  
Country folks can survive_

 __McCoy started laughing as loud as Kirk had ever heard him laugh before. "Jimmy my boy, that's a Hank Williams Jr. song! Shit, I used to have a whole collection. I used to have some Cash, too."

Kirk grinned, glad he'd improved his best friend's mood instead of utterly ruining it, "And you were giving me a hard time about my archaic choices in music?"

"I didn't know you liked Bosephus and Cash. Ever heard of Hayseed Dixie?" McCoy took over the console and began searching. They spent the rest of the evening listening to old music, McCoy leaving with a smile on his face and a song on his lips. When the room was quiet and Kirk lay down on his soft Captain's bed in his plush Captain's quarters, he heard Johnny Cash echoing in his mind.

 _"If I could start again,  
a million miles away  
I would keep myself,  
I would find a way."_   



End file.
